3.2.1: Culture and Society
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Culture and Biology
Culture relates to nature (our biology and genetics) and nurture (our environment and surroundings that also shape our identities).
Learning Objectives
Examine the ways culture and biology interact to form societies, norms, rituals and other representations of culture
Key Points
- “Culture” encompasses objects and symbols, the meaning given to those objects and symbols, and the norms, values, and beliefs that pervade social life.
- Values reflect an individual’s or society ‘s sense of right and wrong or what “ought” to be.
- Humans also have biological drives—hunger, thirst, need for sleep—whose unfulfillment can result in death.
- Because of our biology and genetics, we have a particular form and we have certain abilities. These set essential limits on the variety of activities that humans can express culture, but there is still enormous diversity in this expression.
- Culture refers to the way we understand ourselves as individuals and as members of society, including stories, religion, media, rituals, and even language itself.
- Social Darwinism was the belief that the closer a cultural group was to the normative Western European standards of behavior and appearance, the more evolved they were.
- Culture is the non-biological or social aspects of human life.
- Culture refers to the way we understand ourselves as individuals and as members of society, including stories, religion, media, rituals, and even language itself.
- Social Darwinism hinged on the belief that the closer cultural groups were to the normative Western European standards of behavior and appearance, the more evolved they were.
Key Terms
- Social Darwinism : a theory that the laws of evolution by natural selection also apply to social structures.
- culture : The beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects that constitute a people’s way of life.
Culture and Biology
Human beings are biological creatures. We are composed of blood and bones and flesh. At the most basic level, our genes express themselves in physical characteristics, affecting bodily aspects such as skin tone and eye color. Yet, human beings are much more than our biology, and this is evident particularly in the way humans generate, and live within, complex cultures.
Defining Culture
Culture is a term used by social scientists, like anthropologists and sociologists, to encompass all the facets of human experience that extend beyond our physical fact. Culture refers to the way we understand ourselves both as individuals and as members of society, and includes stories, religion, media, rituals, and even language itself.
It is critical to understand that the term culture does not describe a singular, fixed entity. Instead, it is a useful heuristic, or way of thinking, that can be very productive in understanding behavior. As a student of the social sciences, you should think of the word culture as a conceptual tool rather than as a uniform, static definition. Culture necessarily changes, and is changed by, a variety of interactions, with individuals, media, and technology, just to name a few.
The History of Culture as a Concept
Culture is primarily an anthropological term. The field of anthropology emerged around the same time as Social Darwinism, in the late 19 th and early 20 th century. Social Darwinism was the belief that the closer a cultural group was to the normative, Western, European standards of behavior and appearance, the more evolved that group was. As a theory of the world, it was essentially a racist concept that persists in certain forms up to this day. If you have ever heard someone reference people of African descent as being from, or close to, the jungle, or the wilderness, you’ve encountered a type of coded language that is a modern incarnation of Social Darwinist thought.
During the late 19 th and early 20 th century time period, the positivist school also emerged in sociological thought. One of the key figures in this school, Cesare Lombroso, studied the physical characteristics of prisoners, because he believed that he could find a biological basis for crime. Lombroso coined the term atavism to suggest that some individuals were throwbacks to a more bestial point in evolutionary history. Lombroso used this concept to claim that certain individuals were more weak-willed, and more prone to criminal activity, than their supposedly more evolved counterparts.
In accordance with the hegemonic beliefs of the time, anthropologists first theorized culture as something that evolves in the same way biological organisms evolve. Just like biological evolution, cultural evolution was thought to be an adaptive system that produced unique results depending on location and historical moment. However, unlike biological evolution, culture can be intentionally taught and thus spread from one group of people to another.
Initially, anthropologists believed that culture was a product of biological evolution, and that cultural evolution depended exclusively on physical conditions. Today’s anthropologists no longer believe it is this simple. Neither culture nor biology is solely responsible for the other. They interact in very complex ways, which biological anthropologists will be studying for years to come.
Culture and Society
Culture is what differentiates one group or society from the next; different societies have different cultures.
Learning Objectives
Differentiate between the various meanings of culture within society
Key Points
- Different societies have different cultures; a culture represents the beliefs and practices of a group, while society represents the people who share those beliefs and practices.
- Material culture refers to the objects or belongings of a group of people, such as automobiles, stores, and the physical structures where people worship. Nonmaterial culture, in contrast, consists of the ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of a society.
- In 18th and 19th century Europe, the term “culture” was equated with civilization and considered a unique aspect of Western society. Remnants of that colonial definition of culture can be seen today in the idea of ” high culture “.
- During the Romantic Era, culture became equated with nationalism and gave rise to the idea of multiple national cultures.
- Today, social scientists understand culture as a society’s norms, values, and beliefs; as well as its objects and symbols, and the meaning given to those objects and symbols.
Key Terms
- civilization : An organized culture encompassing many communities, often on the scale of a nation or a people; a stage or system of social, political or technical development.
- high culture : The artistic entertainment and material artifacts associated with a society’s aristocracy or most learned members, usually requiring significant education to be appreciated or highly skilled labor to be produced.
- popular culture : The prevailing vernacular culture in any given society, including art, cooking, clothing, entertainment, films, mass media, music, sports, and style
- nationalism : The idea of supporting one’s country and culture; patriotism.
Culture encompasses human elements beyond biology: for example, our norms and values, the stories we tell, learned or acquired behaviors, religious beliefs, art and fashion, and so on. Culture is what differentiates one group or society from the next.
Different societies have different cultures; however it is important not to confuse the idea of culture with society. A culture represents the beliefs and practices of a group, while society represents the people who share those beliefs and practices. Neither society nor culture could exist without the other.
Defining Culture
Almost every human behavior, from shopping to marriage to expressions of feelings, is learned. Behavior based on learned customs is not necessarily a bad thing – being familiar with unwritten rules helps people feel secure and confident that their behaviors will not be challenged or disrupted. However even the simplest actions – such as commuting to work, ordering food from a restaurant, and greeting someone on the street – evidence a great deal of cultural propriety.
Material culture refers to the objects or belongings of a group of people (such as automobiles, stores, and the physical structures where people worship). Nonmaterial culture, in contrast, consists of the ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of a society. Material and nonmaterial aspects of culture are linked, and physical objects often symbolize cultural ideas. A metro pass is a material object, but it represents a form of nonmaterial culture (namely capitalism, and the acceptance of paying for transportation). Clothing, hairstyles, and jewelry are part of material culture, but the appropriateness of wearing certain clothing for specific events reflects nonmaterial culture. A school building belongs to material culture, but the teaching methods and educational standards are part of education’s nonmaterial culture.
These material and nonmaterial aspects of culture can vary subtly from region to region. As people travel farther afield, moving from different regions to entirely different parts of the world, certain material and nonmaterial aspects of culture become dramatically unfamiliar. As we interact with cultures other than our own, we become more aware of our own culture – which might otherwise be invisible to us – and to the differences and commonalities between our culture and others.
The History of “Culture”
Some people think of culture in the singular, in the way that it was thought of in Europe during the 18th and early 19th centuries: as something achieved through evolution and progress. This concept of culture reflected inequalities within European societies and their colonies around the world; in short, it equates culture with civilization and contrasts both with nature or non-civilization. According to this understanding of culture, some countries are more “civilized” than others, and some people are therefore more “cultured” than others.
When people talk about culture in the sense of civilization or refinement, they are really talking about “high culture,” which is different from the sociological concept of culture. High culture refers to elite goods and activities, such as haute cuisine, high fashion or couture, museum-caliber art, and classical music. In common parlance, people may refer to others as being “cultured” if they know about and take part in these activities. Someone who uses culture in this sense might argue that classical music is more refined than music by working-class people, such as jazz or the indigenous music traditions of aboriginal peoples. Popular (or “pop”) culture, by contrast, is more mainstream and influenced by mass media and the common opinion. Popular culture tends to change as tastes and opinions change over time, whereas high culture generally stays the same throughout the years. For example, Mozart is considered high culture, whereas Britney Spears is considered pop culture; Mozart is likely to still be popular in 100 years, but Britney Spears will likely be forgotten by all but a few.
This definition of culture only recognizes a single standard of refinement to which all groups are held accountable. Thus, people who differ from those who believe themselves to be “cultured” in this sense are not usually understood as having a different culture; they are understood as being uncultured.
Although we still see remnants of this idea of high culture today, it has largely fallen out of practice. Its decline began during the Romantic Era, when scholars in Germany – especially those concerned with nationalism – developed the more inclusive notion of culture as a distinct worldview. Although more inclusive, this approach to culture still allowed for distinctions between so-called “civilized” and “primitive” cultures. By the late 19th century, anthropologists changed the concept of culture to include a wider variety of societies, ultimately resulting in the concept of culture adopted by social scientists today: objects and symbols, the meaning given to those objects and symbols, and the norms, values, and beliefs that pervade social life.
This new perspective has also removed the evaluative element of the concept of culture; it distinguishes among different cultures, but does not rank them. For instance, the high culture of elites is now contrasted with popular or pop culture. In this sense, high culture no longer refers to the idea of being “cultured,” as all people have culture. High culture simply refers to the objects, symbols, norms, values, and beliefs of a particular group of people; popular culture does the same.
Cultural Universals
A cultural universal is an element, pattern, trait, or institution that is common to all human cultures worldwide.
Learning Objectives
Discuss cultural universals in terms of the various elements of culture, such as norms and beliefs
Key Points
- Cultural universals are elements, patterns, traits, or institutions that are common to all human cultures worldwide.
- There is a tension in cultural anthropology and cultural sociology between the claim that culture is a universal and that it is also particular. The idea of cultural universals runs contrary in some ways to cultural relativism which was, in part, a response to Western ethnocentrism.
- Ethnocentrism may take obvious forms. For example, the belief that one people’s culture is the most beautiful and true. Franz Boas understood “culture” to include not only certain tastes in food, art, and music, or beliefs about religion but instead assumed a much broader notion of culture.
- Among the cultural universals listed by Donald Brown (1991) are abstract speech, figurative speech and metaphors, antonyms and synonyms, and units of time.
- Among the cultural universals listed by Brown, some were investigated by Franz Boas. For example, Boas saw language as a means of categorizing experiences. Thus, although people may perceive visible radiation similarly, people who speak different languages slice up the continuum in different ways.
- Since Franz Boas, two debates have dominated cultural anthropology.
Key Terms
- culture : The beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects that constitute a people’s way of life.
- particular : A specific case; an individual thing as opposed to a whole class.
- universal : Common to all society; worldwide.
The sociology of culture concerns culture—usually understood as the ensemble of symbolic codes used by a society—as it is manifested in society. The elements of culture include (1) symbols (anything that carries particular meaning recognized by people who share the same culture); (2) language (system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another); (3) values (culturally-defined standards that serve as broad guidelines for social living; (4) beliefs (specific statements that people hold to be true); and (5) norms (rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members). While these elements of culture may be seen in various contexts over time and across geography, a cultural universal is an element, pattern, trait, or institution that is common to all human cultures worldwide. Taken together, the whole body of cultural universals is known as the human condition. Among the cultural universals listed by Donald Brown (1991) are abstract speech, figurative speech and metaphors, antonyms and synonyms, and units of time.
The concept of a cultural universal has long been discussed in the social sciences. Cultural universals are elements, patterns, traits, or institutions that are common to all human cultures worldwide. There is a tension in cultural anthropology and cultural sociology between the claim that culture is a universal (the fact that all human societies have culture), and that it is also particular (culture takes a tremendous variety of forms around the world). The idea of cultural universals—that specific aspects of culture are common to all human cultures—runs contrary to cultural relativism. Cultural relativism was, in part, a response to Western ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism may take obvious forms, in which one consciously believes that one people’s arts are the most beautiful, values the most virtuous, and beliefs the most truthful. Franz Boas argued that one’s culture may mediate and thus limit one’s perceptions in less obvious ways. He understood “culture” to include not only certain tastes in food, art, and music, or beliefs about religion but instead assumed a much broader notion of culture.
Among the cultural universals listed by Donald Brown, some of these were investigated by Franz Boas. For example, Boas called attention to the idea that language is a means of categorizing experiences, hypothesizing that the existence of different languages suggests that people categorize, and thus experience, language differently. Therefore, although people may perceive visible radiation the same way, in terms of a continuum of color, people who speak different languages slice up this continuum into discrete colors in different ways.
Culture Shock
Culture shock is the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life in a new country.
Learning Objectives
Discuss culture shock in terms of its four phases – honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment and mastery
Key Points
- Culture shock is the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new country.
- Culture shock can be described as consisting of at least one of four distinct phases: honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment, and mastery.
- During the honeymoon phase, the differences between the old and new culture are seen in a romantic light.
- After some time (usually around three months, depending on the individual), differences between the old and new culture become apparent and may create anxiety. This is the mark of the negotiation phase.
- In the adjustment phase, one grows accustomed to the new culture and develops routines.
- Lastly, in the mastery stage, assignees are able to participate fully and comfortably in the host culture.
- In the Adjustment phase, one grows accustomed to the new culture and develops routines.
- One knows what to expect in most situations and the host country no longer feels all that new.
- Lastly, in the Mastery stage, assignees are able to participate fully and comfortably in the host culture.
Key Terms
- biculturalism : The state or quality of being bicultural.
Culture shock is the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration or a visit to a new country, or to a move between social environments. One of the most common causes of culture shock involves individuals in a foreign country. There is no true way to entirely prevent culture shock, as individuals in any society are personally affected by cultural contrasts differently.
Culture shock can be described as consisting of at least one of four distinct phases: honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment, and mastery. During the honeymoon phase, the differences between the old and new culture are seen in a romantic light. During the first few weeks, most people are fascinated by the new culture. They associate with nationals who speak their language, and who are polite to the foreigners. This period is full of observations and new discoveries. Like most honeymoon periods, this stage eventually ends.
After some time (usually around three months, depending on the individual), differences between the old and new culture become apparent and may create anxiety. This is the mark of the negotiation phase. Excitement may eventually give way to unpleasant feelings of frustration and anger as one continues to experience unfavorable events that may be perceived as strange and offensive to one’s cultural attitude. Still, the most important change in the period is communication. People adjusting to a new culture often feel lonely and homesick because they are not yet used to the new environment and meet people with whom they are not familiar every day.
Again, after some time, one grows accustomed to the new culture and develops routines, marking the adjustment phase. One knows what to expect in most situations and the host country no longer feels all that new. One becomes concerned with basic living again and things become more normal. One starts to develop problem-solving skills for dealing with the culture and begins to accept the culture’s ways with a positive attitude. The culture begins to make sense and negative reactions and responses to the culture are reduced.
In the mastery stage, assignees are able to participate fully and comfortably in the host culture. Mastery does not mean total conversion. People often keep many traits from their earlier culture, such as accents and languages. It is often referred to as the biculturalism stage.
Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
Ethnocentrism, in contrast to cultural relativism, is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one’s own culture.
Learning Objectives
Examine the concepts of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism in relation to your own and other cultures in society
Key Points
- Ethnocentrism often entails the belief that one’s own race or ethnic group is the most important or that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other groups.
- Within this ideology, individuals will judge other groups in relation to their own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with concern to language, behavior, customs, and religion.
- Cultural relativism is the belief that the concepts and values of a culture cannot be fully translated into, or fully understood in, other languages; that a specific cultural artifact (e.g., a ritual) has to be understood in terms of the larger symbolic system of which it is a part.
- Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual person’s beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individual’s own culture.
Key Terms
- ethnocentrism : The tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one’s own culture.
- cultural relativism : Cultural relativism is a principle that was established as axiomatic in anthropological research by Franz Boas in the first few decades of the twentieth century, and later popularized by his students. Boas first articulated the idea in 1887: “…civilization is not something absolute, but… is relative, and… our ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes. “
Ethnocentrism, a term coined by William Graham Sumner, is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of your own ethnic culture and the belief that that is in fact the “right” way to look at the world. This leads to making incorrect assumptions about others’ behavior based on your own norms, values, and beliefs. For instance, reluctance or aversion to trying another culture’s cuisine is ethnocentric. Social scientists strive to treat cultural differences as neither inferior nor superior. That way, they can understand their research topics within the appropriate cultural context and examine their own biases and assumptions at the same time.
This approach is known as “cultural relativism.” Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual person’s beliefs and activities should be understood by others in terms of that individual’s own culture. A key component of cultural relativism is the concept that nobody, not even researchers, comes from a neutral position. The way to deal with our own assumptions is not to pretend that they don’t exist but rather to acknowledge them, and then use the awareness that we are not neutral to inform our conclusions.
An example of cultural relativism might include slang words from specific languages (and even from particular dialects within a language). For instance, the word “tranquilo” in Spanish translates directly to “calm” in English. However, it can be used in many more ways than just as an adjective (e.g., the seas are calm). Tranquilo can be a command or suggestion encouraging another to calm down. It can also be used to ease tensions in an argument (e.g., everyone relax) or to indicate a degree of self-composure (e.g., I’m calm). There is not a clear English translation of the word, and in order to fully comprehend its many possible uses, a cultural relativist would argue that it would be necessary to fully immerse oneself in cultures where the word is used.
Material Culture
In the social sciences, material culture is a term that refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations.
Learning Objectives
Give examples of material culture and how it can help sociologist understand a particular society
Key Points
- Studying a culture ‘s relationship to materiality is a lens through which social and cultural attitudes can be discussed. People’s relationship to and perception of objects are socially and culturally dependent.
- A view of culture as a symbolic system with adaptive functions, varying from place to place, led anthropologists to conceive of different cultures as having distinct patterns of enduring conventional sets of meaning.
- Anthropologists distinguish between material culture and symbolic culture, not only because each reflects different kinds of human activity, but also because they constitute different kinds of data and require different methodologies to study.
- This view of culture, which came to dominate anthropology between World War I and World War II, implied that each culture was bounded and had to be understood as a whole, on its own terms.
- The result is a belief in cultural relativism, which suggests that there are no ‘better’ or ‘worse’ cultures, just different cultures.
Key Terms
- material culture : In the social sciences, material culture is a term, developed in the late 19th and early 20th century, that refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations.
- Symbolic culture : Symbolic culture is a concept used by archaeologists, social anthropologists and sociologists to designate the cultural realm constructed and inhabited uniquely by Homo sapiens.
In the social sciences, material culture refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations. Material culture consists in physical objects that humans make. These objects inevitably reflect the historical, geographic, and social conditions of their origin. For instance, the clothes that you are wearing might tell researchers of the future about the fashions of today.
People’s relationship to and perception of objects are socially and culturally dependent. Accordingly, social and cultural attitudes can be discussed through the lens of a culture’s relationship to materiality.
Material culture is also a term used by historians, sometimes termed “material history,” which refers to the study of ancient objects and artifacts in order to understand how a particular culture was organized and functioned over time.
This view of culture as a symbolic system with adaptive functions, varying from place to place, led anthropologists to view different cultures as having distinct patterns of enduring conventional sets of meaning. Anthropologists thus distinguish between material culture and symbolic culture, not only because each reflects different kinds of human activity, but also because they constitute different kinds of data and require different methodologies to study.
This view of culture, which came to dominate anthropology between World War I and World War II, implied that each culture was bounded and had to be understood as a whole, on its own terms. The result is a belief in cultural relativism, which suggests that there are no ‘better’ or ‘worse’ cultures, just different cultures.
Nonmaterial Culture
Non-material culture includes the behaviors, ideas, norms, values, and beliefs that contribute to a society’s overall culture.
Learning Objectives
Analyze the different ways norms, values and beliefs interact to form non-material culture
Key Points
- In contrast to material culture, non-material culture does not include physical objects or artifacts.
- It includes things that have no existence in the physical world but exist entirely in the symbolic realm.
- Examples are concepts such as good and evil, mythical inventions such as gods and underworlds, and social constructs such as promises and football games.
- The concept of symbolic culture draws from semiotics and emphasizes the way in which distinctively human culture is mediated through signs and concepts.
- The symbolic aspect of distinctively human culture has been emphasized in anthropology by Emile Durkheim, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Clifford Geertz, and many others.
- Semiotics emphasises the way in which distinctively human culture is mediated through signs and concepts.
Key Terms
- social construct : Social constructs are generally understood to be the by-products of countless human choices rather than laws resulting from divine will or nature.
Culture as a general concept consists of both material and non-material culture. Material culture is a term developed in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries, that refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations. In contrast, non-material culture does not include physical objects or artifacts. Examples include any ideas, beliefs, values, or norms that shape a society.
When sociologists talk about norms, they are talking about what’s considered normal, appropriate, or ordinary for a particular group of people. Social norms are group-held beliefs about how members should behave in a given context. Sociologists describe norms as laws that govern society’s behaviors. Values are related to the norms of a culture, but they are more global and abstract than norms. Norms are rules for behavior in specific situations, while values identify what should be judged as good or evil. Flying the national flag on a holiday is a norm , but it exhibits patriotism, which is a value . Wearing dark clothing and appearing solemn are normative behaviors at a funeral. In certain cultures they reflect the values of respect and support of friends and family. Different cultures honor different values. Finally, beliefs are the way people think the universe operates. Beliefs can be religious or secular, and they can refer to any aspect of life. For instance, many people in the U.S. believe that hard work is the key to success.
Members take part in a culture even if each member’s personal values do not entirely agree with some of the normative values sanctioned in the culture. This reflects an individual’s ability to synthesize and extract aspects valuable to them from the multiple subcultures they belong to.
Norms, values, and beliefs are all deeply interconnected. Together, they provide a way to understand culture.
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1.1: What is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking is one of those things that most people are in favor of – especially in colleges and universities. But people in different fields and traditions have varying definitions, and it is not obvious that all are in favor of the same thing. How should we decide on a definition?
The American Association of Colleges and Universities came up with a definition of critical thinking that we will use as a starting place.
“Critical Thinking is a habit of mind characterized by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas and artifacts before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion” (AAC&U, 2017).
Here are a few things to notice about this definition as we begin exploring this topic:
- Critical thinking is characterized as a habit of mind. One college class is not enough to develop a habit, so one college class is not going to create “critical thinkers.” Instead, this class will introduce you to some component skills of the habit. Your routine and daily decisions will determine whether you develop (or deepen) the habit — or leave what you learn as you go on about your life.
- We assume that the people reading this book will vary with respect to critical thinking habits. Some people will come in already practiced and quite skilled. For them, our discussion about critical thinking will offer ways to think about and double-check their current habits. Others will enter the read believing they are already critical thinkers — already skilled in the habits of thoughtfulness — but will be exposed to vocabulary and ideas that challenge that pre-existing belief.
- The basic value judgment involved in critical thinking, as this field has grown out of the European philosophical tradition, is this: when issues are important, reflective opinions are more valuable than opinions of the moment. It follows from this that when an issue is important, it is worthwhile to have the skills available to think deeply and well. Those are the skills we will be focusing on in this book.
- The definition of critical thinking doesn’t state it, but there is a value judgment implicit in the attention within colleges and universities to critical thinking. The assumption is that it is good to be reasonable and bad to be unreasonable. As a critical thinker, one issue you will be asked to confront over and over in this class: IS CRITICAL THINKING SO IMPORTANT AS TO WARRANT ALL THIS ATTENTION AND ENTHUSIASM? As you get increasingly clear about what critical thinking looks like (in academia), you will be able to think more clearly about the value assumption. Is it worth all the work?


3.10: Faulty Sentence Structure
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Have you ever had a teacher say, “That sentence starts one way and ends another”? If you have, don’t feel badly. Others make this same mistake all the time. Sometimes, we simply lose our train of thought when we write, and we literally start a sentence one way and end it another, as illustrated in the following example:
It’s tough to make sense of this sentence, right?
Of course, this is not the only faulty sentence structure error you might make. It’s important to pay close attention to your sentence structure to make sure you have both a subject and a verb. And, if you are listing items or phrases in a sentence, make sure you keep the items in your list in the same form. Doing so keeps your sentences “parallel,” which is a good thing.
Here is an example of a sentence without parallel structure:
In the sentence above, breakfast is a noun, and exercising and checking begin verb phrases. The items in the list are not in the same form. Here is a correction where the items listed are in the same form:


16.6: The Cultural Innovation Timeline Reconsidered
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The question of how knowledge capital is circulated and deployed in generating successful cultural and media products leads me to reconsider the utility of the term precarious creativity . Rather than simply being a negative indicator, precarious creativity is adding to the knowledge capital of China’s creative industries. In other words, many workers are moving from low-cost production to higher-end production and from low wages to higher salaries. People are moving from traditional broadcasting to new media, where the salaries are better. In the process, some are identifying ways to innovate and internationalize rather than relying on the domestic market. To see how this plays out, I explore the cultural innovation timeline, a concept I have used elsewhere to explain the uneven development of China’s creative industries. Essentially the cultural innovation timeline depicts how production moves from low to higher value offerings. In describing these processes, it underscores the centrality of knowledge capital and the role of cultural intermediaries.
The base level of the cultural innovation timeline is standardized production; for instance, deterritorialized production and outsourcing of call centers gives low-cost locations an opportunity to be included in global trade networks. Factories are established because land is made available for cultural and creative industry projects, often with the help of local governments. 39 Human capital in most of these instances is unskilled. Workers are paid low wages, and they work long hours. While there may be some status working in a design sweatshop or an animation outsourcing company, there is no desire to innovate; this is just a job. That is not to say, however, that there will be no learning on the job.
The second level of the timeline is imitation. Without the capacity to experiment or expend resources in content development, many producers of content follow the path of copycatting. China has a global reputation as a copy-nation, but again this needs to be put into the context of precarity. In the main, copying is a safe way of proceeding; if something has made money, it is reasonable to try it again, or tweak it a little bit. Shaun Rein says copying exists because you don’t have to pay high upfront costs. While an offender might get fined by the government, this is usually cheaper than paying for the rights. 40 In addition to the economic dividends, there are cultural reasons for copy culture that would require a lengthy exposition.
In fashion we see clear evidence of this process. The fashion industry is populated by copyists; in responding to the question “How do you keep reinventing?” Ralph Lauren once said, “You copy. Forty-five years of copying. That’s why I’m here.” 41 In China today, fashion and textile manufacture coexist in a symbiotic relationship. Workers toil to produce textiles while the country’s leaders exhort people to build an “innovative nation.” The worker on the Chinese-owned production line in Shaoxing, the capital of the textile industry in Zhejiang Province, is unlikely to be concerned with the idea of an innovative nation; work is a means to put food on the table, hopefully providing a stable income. This is the ultimate sweat industry: long hours, cramped conditions, and low wages. Workers produce capital through duplication; in this context creativity is redundant.
In many foreign-owned design workshops, creative capital is configured differently. According to Tim Lindgren, an independent designer who took his production to Shanghai several years ago because costs in Australia had escalated to the point where he could not employ staff, “It’s hard to keep high quality staff: they learn on the job and then leave to start their own business or find higher pay.” 42 The mobility of workers in this situation is understandable. For the foreign design enterprise, it entails a search for staff replacements, not always so easy in a cross-cultural work environment. According to Lindgren, the other side of this dilemma is that patterns and designs (copyright) are lost, often appearing as high-priced garments in local markets.
Collaboration follows imitation, as content producers seek out alternative ways to capture value. Two examples of collaboration are pertinent to knowledge capital: film coproduction and TV formats. Coproductions in film are an interesting vehicle of knowledge capital transfer. They are categorized in three ways: the first is joint production (lianhe shezhi , or hepai) , in which domestic and foreign parties make a joint investment of capital, services, or materials, and jointly share the benefits and risks of such “codevelopment.” The second is known as assisted production (xiezuo shezhi , or xiepai) . This is where a foreign party makes an investment to produce in China: equipment, apparatus, sites, services, and so on are provided by the Chinese party, which receives a fee for services. The third model is entrusted production or commissioned production (weituo shezhi , or daipai ). Here the Chinese party is “entrusted” by the foreign party to produce content in China.
Joint productions are considered domestic productions. In discussion with producers in Australia, I have observed a preference for codevelopment over assisted production—that is, producers are endeavoring to make stories that will sell in the Chinese market, taking advice on how to proceed from locals. There is a sense of optimism, some believing that Chinese audiences will learn to appreciate stories that have new ingredients. Codevelopment suggests that the Chinese side is interested in cocreating with foreign entities rather than just supplying low-cost production services. To date this road is littered with failure. It is precarious from a market sense as well as reputation. If producers edit their stories to appease the Chinese government, the danger is that critical acclaim in international filmmaking communities will diminish. Yet the road most traveled is likely to be documentaries about the wonders of China, not the treatment of its dissidents.
In effect, different risks exist depending on whether a project is a joint production or a commissioned one. East Asian businesses in many cases have a better appreciation of the precariousness of working with Chinese scripts; for instance, Chinese screenwriters and producers invariably have a well-developed sense of how to self-censor. Chinese content is imbued with allegory, parody, and oblique references, one of the reasons it encounters audience resistance when exported.
While coproductions have helped Chinese television improve its markets and have injected new ideas, China’s TV industry has struggled to export its brand. In television China’s comparative advantage in overseas sales comes from adaptations of the four classics of Chinese popular literature (sida mingzhu) , 43 as well as historical serials about emperors, eunuchs, and court intrigues. This advantage has conspired to produce a glut of second-rate productions; even home audiences have turned away in large numbers, precipitating edicts from the SAPPRFT to rebalance production slates toward contemporary stories. In short, economic success in the home market does not equate to success abroad, and critical success abroad (as in the case of art house cinema) does not necessarily translate into economic success at home.
In the case of TV formats, a transaction is made between the domestic licensee and the format holder or distributor. According to the managing director of a leading international TV format distributor, Chinese television stations generally want more knowledge than other international partners. The TV format distributor in question not only sells the copyright of the TV format to the local TV station or production company but also provides direction on program localization, consulting on production, and even direct participation during the production and postproduction periods. This represents a difference from the format licensing business elsewhere; in China the foreign party is regarded like a consulting firm. 44 The Chinese want the know-how.
Following collaboration, the fourth level in the cultural innovation timeline is cultural trade. By the first decade of the millennium, the impetus to move programs out of China into international regional markets had increased. Coincident with the cultural trade impetus was the consolidation of production and management, first in media conglomerates and later in media bases or clusters (the late 1990s, early 2000s). This consolidation constitutes level five of the timeline. I have earlier mentioned the virtues of clustering and the spillover effects that can accrue. Of course, this is the ideal. Clustering has a checkered history in China’s reform period. In many instances, clusters function to attract business investment (zhao shang) more than attracting creative talent (zhao chuang) . 45 Moreover, the fact that China has hundreds of clusters in which outsourcing is the bread and butter indicates that there is still a market for semiskilled labor. 46 The massive injection of government funding in clusters is driving competition for talent and investment. Places are competing for creative talent and investment on a scale unprecedented in China, with local governments providing preferential policies, tax breaks, and free rent. In effect, precarity has a broader context in China. While employment is volatile and profits are uneven across the broad spectrum of commercial creative industries, the high level of government subsidy in constructing zones and parks has created a bubble.
In previous work on cultural and creative industries, I have described level six as constituting “peer communities” and “creative communities.” 47 This is the online world, with more than 650 million participants. The activities of online producers are indeed precarious, so much so that much content is predominantly parody. It is posted, reposted, and then taken down, often by persons employed by the government to monitor unhealthy commentary. It is this meaning of precarious creativity, I feel, that characterizes China more than debates about job losses in the “creative industries,” which are invariably construed as symptomatic of neoliberalism, a move that arguably succumbs to its own kind of reductionism. 48


Do we really need apostrophes?
When you send a text message, you probably do not bother with apostrophes right? It makes sense that we might not worry about properly punctuating possessives and contractions in a text message, but it’s very important to remember that we do need to use apostrophes correctly in other writing situations.
Academics frequently debate about whether or not text messaging is going to kill the poor apostrophe. In his essay “Dear Apostrophe: C Ya,” Rob Jenkins (2012) writes, “[O]ne of my professors, talking about the way language evolves over time, predicted that the next evolutionary stage would involve common punctuation marks. Specifically, he said, the apostrophe would eventually cease to exist” (para. 1).
This may be true, but the apostrophe is not dead yet!
So if you have been text messaging so long that you forgot what the apostrophe is for, the following pages should be helpful.
Possessives
Using Apostrophes to Make Words Possessive
Beginning writers sometimes mistakenly add apostrophes to make words plural, but this is not how the apostrophe is used; the apostrophe is used to show possession or ownership.
examples
Sam’s game plan
my friend’s DVD
Beth’s zombie
Here’s a test you can use to determine whether an apostrophe is needed—we call it the “
of
” test. In other words, can you reword the sentence and substitute the apostrophe with “of”?
|
Using an Apostrophe
|
Using “of” test
|
|
my friend’s DVD
|
the DVD of my friend
|
|
Beth’s zombie plan
|
the zombie plan of Beth
|
|
James’s canned goods
\(^{*}\)
|
the canned goods of James
|
\(\^{*}\)
James’ is also acceptable
If you just mean to make a word plural, you should not add an apostrophe. Here is an example of incorrect usage:
Here, you would not use an apostrophe because there is no ownership being established. You can double check this example and see that this use of the apostrophe would not pass the “of” test.
The planned of the students
just does not make sense.
The sentence above would not pass the test and should read as follows:
Plural Possessives
Making plural words possessive can be confusing at times because we so often add an
s
to a noun to make it plural. All of those
s
’s can be a little overwhelming.
But the rules are pretty clear on this issue.
To make plural nouns that do not end in
s
possessive, add
’s
.
examples
the children’s scary books
the mice’s tiny tails
To make plural nouns that end in
s
possessive, add just the
’
.
examples
my cats’ treasures
our zombie fortresses’ weaknesses
Contractions
Using Apostrophes to Create Contractions
Apostrophes are also used in contractions where the apostrophe takes the place of letters that are omitted when you join two words. Here are some examples:
examples
I am = I’m
you are = you’re
it is = it’s
did not = didn’t
You can also use an apostrophe to stand in for omitted numbers.
example
I was born in ’75, and I’m feeling old.
It’s important to note that contractions and using apostrophes to stand in for omitted numbers is generally considered too informal for formal, academic writing.
Some students wonder why they should bother learning these rules, then. The answer is that there are plenty of writing situations where contractions are appropriate. It’s just that contractions are too informal for most of the formal papers you write for college and should be avoided in those situations.
Tips from the Professor
While most of the rules regarding apostrophes are pretty straightforward, there are some situations related to apostrophes that seem to give a lot of people a lot of trouble. Here are some helpful tips:
-
It’s
is a contraction for
it is
. If you need to make
it
possessive, as in
its creepy eyes
, you shouldn’t use an apostrophe. Because of the contraction, the possessive
its
goes against the normal rules.
-
Sometimes, you’ll see writers use an apostrophe when referring to decades like
the 1980’s
. However, it’s standard now to write
the 1980s
without the apostrophe.
-
To make a compound word such as
mother-in-law
possessive, just add an
’s
to the last word. Here is an example:
example
My mother-in-law’s weekly phone calls make me really nervous.
4. If you need to show joint possession, only the last word should be made possessive, as illustrated in this example:
example
Alex and Megan’s zombie-proof fence is certainly admirable.
Watch this video of the grammar professor, as she helps her student understand how to use apostrophes correctly.
The TRY IT OUT SECTION


13.4.4: Protecting Your Communications
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- LibreTexts
What You’ll Learn
- The difference between in-transit and end-to-end encryption
- Who has access to your information when not using an encryption
- Who has access to your information when using an in-transit encryption
- Who has access to your information when using an end-to-end encryption
The best way to protect your online communications is through encryption. But not all encryption is equally protective. We will focus on the concepts that distinguish between the degrees of protection.
Encrypted or Not
The most basic version of encrypted communications is in-transit encryption, where your information is encrypted between your computer and a server. In the context of browsing the web, this is the best you can do to protect the content (but not the metadata) of your communications from an adversary. Most web browsers indicate whether your browsing is encrypted by the URL, as illustrated below.
In the top example, the information is transmitted unencrypted. The full URL in this case is http://whenisgood.net , where http indicates accessing a web page without encryption. This browser (Firefox) emphasizes this point with a struck-through lock. In the bottom example, the information is encrypted: https indicates accessing a web page with encryption, and the s stands for “secure.” The keys used for this encryption are exchanged between your computer and the whenisgood servers using the Diffie-Hellman key exchange, as described in the chapter “Exchanging Keys for Encryption.”
Using http , every entity on the path between you and the website pictured below can access the content of your web browsing (such as the pictures being loaded and any information you might type into a web form). Further, anyone snooping on the communications between the entities on these paths (such as between Comcast’s network and the internet backbone) may also have access to your browsing content. We qualify this with may because the communications between two entities on this path may be encrypted. For example, the communications between a cell phone and a cell tower are encrypted in most cases.
By contrast, when you use https , only you and the website (technically, the servers that are hosting the website) have access to the content of your browsing. We specify content here because certain metadata would still be known by entities on the path between you and the website, such as the basic URL of the website, the amount of time you spend browsing the website, and the amount of information you are downloading from the website.
In-Transit Encryption
When we communicate with another person by email, instant messaging, or video chat, those communications are (most often) routed through the communication provider (e.g., Google servers for email or Microsoft servers for Skype calls), as pictured below. Nowadays, those communications are usually encrypted but most often only encrypted between you and the communication provider. That is, while the entities and eavesdroppers along the path between Assata and the communication provider’s servers (center) and between the communication provider’s servers and Bobby do not have access to the content of your communications (but can glean metadata), the communication provider does have access to the content of your communications.
We call this in-transit encryption because the content is encrypted while it is in transit between Assata and the communication provider and between the communication provider and Bobby. The in-transit encryption keys are generated separately for each part of the path between Assata and Bobby, pictured below. The provider (center) performs a Diffie-Hellman key exchange with Assata, generating a shared key, and performs a separate Diffie-Hellman key exchange with Bobby, generating a different shared key. When Assata sends a message to Bobby through the provider, the message is first encrypted with the key Assata shares with the provider, and then the message is transmitted to the provider. The provider decrypts the message with the key that Assata and the provider share. Then the provider re-encrypts the message with the key that the provider shares with Bobby before transmitting the encrypted message to Bobby. Bobby can then decrypt the message. Therefore, the message only exists in a decrypted state on Assata’s and Bobby’s devices and the provider’s servers; the message is encrypted when it is in transit between these entities.
End-to-End Encryption
While in-transit encryption protects your communications from many potential adversaries (such as your internet service provider, the Wi-Fi hotspot, or a snoop along the communication channels), the communication provider still has access to all that information. Even if the provider is not a direct adversary, they may share that information with an adversary (such as through a subpoena or warrant). End-to-end encryption (E2EE) will protect your communications from even the communication provider.
For E2EE (pictured below), Assata and Bobby exchange keys (using a Diffie-Hellman key exchange or a similar procedure). While their communications are routed through the communication provider, so long as the provider isn’t mounting a man-in-the-middle attack, the communications through the provider are encrypted with a key that only Bobby and Assata have access to. That is, the message only exists in a decrypted state on Assata’s and Bobby’s devices. Assata’s and Bobby’s devices are the end points of the communication (hence end-to-end encryption).
Authentication
While E2EE is the gold standard, there are further considerations. As mentioned above, end-to-end encryption is only established if the communication provider (or another third-party member) does not mount a man-in-the-middle attack starting at the time of key exchange. However, as we covered in the chapter “The Man in the Middle,” if Assata and Bobby verify their keys through independent channels, they can determine whether or not a man-in-the-middle attack has occurred and so whether their communications are truly end-to-end encrypted.
While many apps or services claiming E2EE provide the ability to verify keys, many do not, providing little guarantee to trust the claims of E2EE. Further, for those E2EE apps that do provide the ability to verify keys, most operate on a Trust on First Use (TOFU) basis. That is, communications may begin without verifying keys first. However, while actually doing key verification is the only way to guarantee E2EE, the existence of the ability to verify keys is protective against automated man-in-the-middle attacks, as even a small fraction of users verifying keys would catch widespread man-in-the-middle attacks.
And, of course, E2EE only protects the communication between devices—it does not protect the data that is on the device. E2EE apps should be combined with strong passwords to protect the account or device.
In Context: Multiparty Video Chatting
There are many apps and services for video chatting between two or more people, with varying degrees of security. Here are three illustrative examples:
- Wire provides the gold standard of E2EE. Each user has an account that can be accessed from multiple devices (e.g., laptop and smartphone). There is a public key for each device that is used to establish an encryption key for a session (e.g., a video call), and the fingerprints of these keys can be compared to verify true E2EE. Wire allows E2EE video calls for groups of up to twelve users.
- Zoom allows video calls for much larger groups and does provide E2EE in that a video stream is encrypted and decrypted by the users with the same key. However, this key is established and distributed by the Zoom servers. Since Zoom has access to the encryption key, this cannot be considered true E2EE. Further, there is no mechanism for users to verify the encryption keys. As of summer 2020, Zoom had a proposal for establishing keys for true E2EE, but it has not yet implemented it.
- Jitsi Meet also provides large-group video conferencing, but only using in-transit encryption. However, Jitsi Meet is available to be hosted on any server (including your own, if you are so inclined). There is an instance of Jitsi Meet hosted by May First, a nonprofit that provides technical solutions to social movements and is a trusted third party to many groups. Even though May First has access to these communications, some would prefer to trust May First over a profit-driven solution such as Zoom.
External Resources
- Blum, Josh, Simon Booth, Oded Gal, Maxwell Krohn, Julia Len, Karan Lyons, Antonio Marcedone, et al. “ E2E Encryption for Zoom Meetings .” Zoom Video Communications, December 15, 2020.
Media Attributions
- http-example © OSU OERU is licensed under a CC BY-NC (Attribution NonCommercial) license
- https-example © OSU OERU is licensed under a CC BY-NC (Attribution NonCommercial) license
- who-has-access-to-your-data © OSU OERU is licensed under a CC BY-NC (Attribution NonCommercial) license
- data-access-communication © OSU OERU is licensed under a CC BY-NC (Attribution NonCommercial) license
- notE2EE © OSU OERU is licensed under a CC BY-NC (Attribution NonCommercial) license
- E2EE © OSU OERU is licensed under a CC BY-NC (Attribution NonCommercial) license


2.1: Defining Culture and Intercultural Communication
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In this section, we will define culture and explain what culture, co-culture, and intercultural communication is.
Definition of Culture
For the purposes of exploring the communicative aspects of culture, we will define culture as the ongoing negotiation of learned and patterned beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors among members of a group. Unpacking the definition, we can see that culture shouldn’t be conceptualized as stable and unchanging. Culture is “negotiated,” because it is dynamic, and cultural changes can be traced and analyzed to better understand why our society is the way it is. The definition also points out that culture is learned, which accounts for the importance of socializing institutions like family, school, peers, and the media.
Culture is patterned in that there are recognizable widespread similarities among people within a cultural group. There is also deviation from and resistance to those patterns by individuals and subgroups within a culture, which is why cultural patterns change over time. Lastly, this definition acknowledges that culture influences our beliefs about what is true and false, our attitudes including our likes and dislikes, our values regarding what is right and wrong, and our behaviors.
Culture is often invisible to us and we tend to take it for granted. As the saying goes, ‘fish don’t necessarily know they are in water because they are completely immersed in it.’ Our cultural environment is difficult to perceive until we are exposed to something different. Just as a fish out of water is suddenly aware of what it normally lives inside of, we gain awareness of our own culture when we are exposed to situations and people that are unfamiliar and different.
Culture, Co-culture, and Intercultural Communication
Intercultural communication occurs when people with different cultural and co-cultural groups interact with each other. Most people tend to think of intercultural communication in terms of communicating with someone from a different country. However, even within one geographic location, both a dominant culture and multiple co-cultural groups exist. The dominant culture is created by the group who is in power, runs the country, and makes laws and policies. The attitudes, beliefs, values, patterns of thinking, and communicative behaviors of the dominant group are the ones that have become normalized and are often viewed as ‘ideal’ or superior. For example, what is considered ‘proper’ English, acceptable hairstyles, and business attire have all been defined by the dominant group.
Historically, in the U.S., this dominant group has been comprised of wealthy, white, heterosexual, Christian, males. However, other co-cultural groups exist based on race, gender, social class, sexual orientation, ableness, generation etc. Because of this, intercultural communication actually exists on a continuum. On the low end, we might be communicating with someone of the same race and social class, but they may be a different gender. On the high end, we may be communicating with someone who is from a completely different geographic location, gender, race, generation, etc.
Culture and co-culture(s) influence our behaviors, values, beliefs, patterns of thinking, and perception of our environment. Cultural and co-cultural identities distinguish groups of people from one another. This is important because group differences are often what make us feel uncomfortable in interactions and can lead to miscommunication and conflict. Moreover, in all cultures, co-cultural membership based on factors like gender or race can work to either privilege or disadvantage members of that particular group. Being part of the dominant group generates certain privileges that members of the nondominant group do not get and create unequal power dynamics in our communicative interactions. However, by recognizing privilege and studying the common differences that exist across cultures in terms of beliefs, values, attitudes, and patterns of thinking, we can better reflect on our own culture and co-culture, view it through a different lens, and improve our intercultural communication competence.


12.5: The Public Presidency
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Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Explain how technological innovations have empowered presidents
- Identify ways in which presidents appeal to the public for approval
- Explain how the role of first ladies changed over the course of the twentieth century
With the advent of motion picture newsreels and voice recordings in the 1920s, presidents began to broadcast their message to the general public. Franklin Roosevelt, while not the first president to use the radio, adopted this technology to great effect. Over time, as radio gave way to newer and more powerful technologies like television, the Internet, and social media, other presidents have been able magnify their voices to an even-larger degree. Presidents now have far more tools at their disposal to shape public opinion and build support for policies. However, the choice to “go public” does not always lead to political success; it is difficult to convert popularity in public opinion polls into political power. Moreover, the modern era of information and social media empowers opponents at the same time that it provides opportunities for presidents.
The Shaping of the Modern Presidency
From the days of the early republic through the end of the nineteenth century, presidents were limited in the ways they could reach the public to convey their perspective and shape policy. Inaugural addresses and messages to Congress, while circulated in newspapers, proved clumsy devices to attract support, even when a president used plain, blunt language. Some presidents undertook tours of the nation, notably George Washington and Rutherford B. Hayes. Others promoted good relationships with newspaper editors and reporters, sometimes going so far as to sanction a pro-administration newspaper. One president, Ulysses S. Grant, cultivated political cartoonist Thomas Nast to present the president’s perspective in the pages of the magazine Harper’s Weekly . 37 Abraham Lincoln experimented with public meetings recorded by newspaper reporters and public letters that would appear in the press, sometimes after being read at public gatherings (Figure 12.13). Most presidents gave speeches, although few proved to have much immediate impact, including Lincoln’s memorable Gettysburg Address.
Rather, most presidents exercised the power of patronage (or appointing people who are loyal and help them out politically) and private deal-making to get what they wanted at a time when Congress usually held the upper hand in such transactions. But even that presidential power began to decline with the emergence of civil service reform in the later nineteenth century, which led to most government officials being hired on their merit instead of through patronage. Only when it came to diplomacy and war were presidents able to exercise authority on their own, and even then, institutional as well as political restraints limited their independence of action.
Theodore Roosevelt came to the presidency in 1901, at a time when movie newsreels were becoming popular. Roosevelt, who had always excelled at cultivating good relationships with the print media, eagerly exploited this new opportunity as he took his case to the people with the concept of the presidency as bully pulpit , a platform from which to push his agenda to the public. His successors followed suit, and they discovered and employed new ways of transmitting their message to the people in an effort to gain public support for policy initiatives. With the popularization of radio in the early twentieth century, it became possible to broadcast the president’s voice into many of the nation’s homes. Most famously, FDR used the radio to broadcast his thirty “fireside chats” to the nation between 1933 and 1944.
In the post–World War II era, television began to replace radio as the medium through which presidents reached the public. This technology enhanced the reach of the handsome young president John F. Kennedy and the trained actor Ronald Reagan. At the turn of the twentieth century, the new technology was the Internet. The extent to which this mass media technology can enhance the power and reach of the president has yet to be fully realized. In the twenty-first century, presidents face a paradox. While there are more ways than ever to get their message out, be it television channels or social media networks, the complexity of modern media makes the prospects for presidents of directly reaching the public less certain. Former president Donald Trump took going public to the extreme, some days sending dozens of tweets to both promote his agenda and attack political opponents. Even his allies and senior officials would be surprised by some of the tweets.
Other presidents have used advances in transportation to take their case to the people. Woodrow Wilson traveled the country to advocate formation of the League of Nations. However, he fell short of his goal when he suffered a stroke in 1919 and cut his tour short. Both Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s and 1940s and Harry S. Truman in the 1940s and 1950s used air travel to conduct diplomatic and military business. Under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a specific plane, commonly called Air Force One, began carrying the president around the country and the world. This gives the president the ability to take their message directly to the far corners of the nation at any time.
Going Public: Promise and Pitfalls
Link to Learning
Today, it is possible for the White House to take its case directly to the people via websites like White House Live, where the public can watch live press briefings and speeches.
The First Lady: A Secret Weapon?
The president is not the only member of the First Family who often attempts to advance an agenda by going public. First ladies increasingly exploited the opportunity to gain public support for an issue of deep interest to them. Before 1933, most first ladies served as private political advisers to their husbands. In the 1910s, Edith Bolling Wilson took a more active but still private role assisting her husband, President Woodrow Wilson, afflicted by a stroke, in the last years of his presidency. However, as the niece of one president and the wife of another, it was Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1930s and 1940s who opened the door for first ladies to do something more.
Eleanor Roosevelt took an active role in championing civil rights, becoming in some ways a bridge between her husband and the civil rights movement. She coordinated meetings between FDR and members of the NAACP, championed anti-lynching legislation, openly defied segregation laws, and pushed the Army Nurse Corps to allow black women in its ranks. She also wrote a newspaper column and had a weekly radio show. Her immediate successors returned to the less visible role held by her predecessors, although in the early 1960s, Jacqueline Kennedy gained attention for her efforts to refurbish the White House along historical lines, and Lady Bird Johnson in the mid- and late 1960s endorsed an effort to beautify public spaces and highways in the United States. She also established the foundations of what came to be known as the Office of the First Lady, complete with a news reporter, Liz Carpenter, as her press secretary.
Betty Ford took over as first lady in 1974 and became an avid advocate of women’s rights, proclaiming that she was pro-choice when it came to abortion and lobbying for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). She shared with the public the news of her breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent mastectomy. Her successor, Rosalynn Carter, attended several cabinet meetings and pushed for the ratification of the ERA as well as for legislation addressing mental health issues (Figure 12.15).
The increasing public political role of the first lady continued in the 1980s with Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” antidrug campaign and in the early 1990s with Barbara Bush’s efforts on behalf of literacy. The public role of the first lady reach a new level with Hillary Clinton in the 1990s when her husband put her in charge of his efforts to achieve health care reform, a controversial decision that did not meet with political success. Her successors, Laura Bush in the first decade of the twenty-first century and Michelle Obama in the second, returned to the roles played by predecessors in advocating less controversial policies: Laura Bush advocated literacy and education, while Michelle Obama has emphasized physical fitness and healthy diet and exercise. Nevertheless, the public and political profiles of first ladies remain high, and in the future, the president’s spouse will have the opportunity to use that unelected position to advance policies that might well be less controversial and more appealing than those pushed by the president.
Insider Perspective
A New Role for the First Lady?
While running for the presidency for the first time in 1992, Bill Clinton frequently touted the experience and capabilities of his wife. There was a lot to brag about. Hillary Rodham Clinton was a graduate of Yale Law School, had worked as a member of the impeachment inquiry staff during the height of the Watergate scandal in Nixon’s administration, and had been a staff attorney for the Children’s Defense Fund before becoming the first lady of Arkansas. Acknowledging these qualifications, candidate Bill Clinton once suggested that by electing him, voters would get “two for the price of one.” The clear implication in this statement was that his wife would take on a far larger role than previous first ladies, and this proved to be the case. 39
Shortly after taking office, Clinton appointed the first lady to chair the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. This organization was to follow through on his campaign promise to fix the problems in the U.S. healthcare system. Hillary Clinton had privately requested the appointment, but she quickly realized that the complex web of business interests and political aspirations combined to make the topic of health care reform a hornet’s nest. This put the Clinton administration’s first lady directly into partisan battles few if any previous first ladies had ever faced.
As a testament to both the large role the first lady had taken on and the extent to which she had become the target of political attacks, the recommendations of the task force were soon dubbed “Hillarycare” by opponents. In a particularly contentious hearing in the House, the first lady and Republican representative Dick Armey exchanged pointed jabs with each other. At one point, Armey suggested that the reports of her charm were “overstated” after the first lady likened him to Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a physician known for helping patients commit suicide (Figure 12.16). 40 The following summer, the first lady attempted to use a national bus tour to popularize the health care proposal, although distaste for her and for the program had reached such a fevered pitch that she sometimes was compelled to wear a bulletproof vest. In the end, the efforts came up short and the reform attempts were abandoned as a political failure. Nevertheless, Hillary Clinton remained a political lightning rod for the rest of the Clinton presidency.
What do the challenges of First Lady Hillary Clinton’s foray into national politics suggest about the dangers of a first lady abandoning the traditionally safe nonpartisan goodwill efforts? What do the actions of the first ladies since Clinton suggest about the lessons learned or not learned?


10.2.2: Project
We will discuss the project page starting at the top
The three broken circles are a quick visualization of the status of the project. In this case the project/book has been completed, but peer review and accessibility have not been done/completed. Timeline, Peer Review and Accessibility will be discussed in following pages. More Tools lets you pin this project so it appears on your home page. Edit properties brings up another page. You can edit any of the properties
Edit Project Properties
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Project Properties
For settings and properties related to Peer Reviews, please use the Settings tool on this project's Peer Review page.
Homework and Assessments
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7.1: Introduction to Early Adulthood
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Learning Objectives
- Discuss the developmental tasks of early adulthood.
- Describe physical development in early adulthood.
- Explain how early adulthood is a healthy, yet risky time of life.
- Summarize Levinson’s theory of adult transitions.
- Distinguish between formal and postformal thought.
- Explain dialectical thought.
- Describe Erikson’s stage of intimacy vs. isolation.
- Question Erikson’s assertion about the focus on intimacy in early adulthood.
- Identify trends in mate selection, age at first marriage, and cohabitation in the United States.
- Discuss fertility issues in early adulthood.
- Explain social exchange theory of mate selection.
- Define the principle of least interest.
- Apply Sternberg’s theory of love to specific examples of relationships.
- Apply Lee’s love styles to specific examples of relationships.
- Compare frames of relationships.
- Explain the wheel theory of love.
- Explain the process of disaffection.
- Describe some current concerns in education in today’s colleges.
Developmental Tasks of Early Adulthood
Early adulthood can be a very busy time of life. Havighurst (1972) describes some of the developmental tasks of young adults. These include:
- Achieving autonomy: trying to establish oneself as an independent person with a life of one’s own
- Establishing identity: more firmly establishing likes, dislikes, preferences, and philosophies
- Developing emotional stability: becoming more stable emotionally which is considered a sign of maturing
- Establishing a career: deciding on and pursuing a career or at least an initial career direction and pursuing an education
- Finding intimacy: forming first close, long-term relationships
- Becoming part of a group or community: young adults may, for the first time, become involved with various groups in the community. They may begin voting or volunteering to be part of civic organizations (scouts, church groups, etc.). This is especially true for those who participate in organizations as parents.
- Establishing a residence and learning how to manage a household: learning how to budget and keep a home maintained.
- Becoming a parent and rearing children: learning how to manage a household with children. Making marital adjustments and learning to parent.
Exercise:
To what extent do you think these have changed in the last several years? How might these tasks be different across cultures?
REFERENCES
American Society of Reproductive Medicine (1996-2011): quick facs about infertility. (n.d.). American Society for Reproductive Medicine: News and Publications. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.reproductivefacts.org
Basseches, M. (1984). Dialectical thinking and adult development. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Pub.
Benokraitis, N. V. (2005). Marriages and families: Changes, choices, and constraints (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Berger, K. S. (n.d.). The developing person through the life span (6th ed.). New York: Worth.
Bianchi, S., & Casper, L. (2000). American families. (Dec. ed., Vol. 55) (United States, Population Reference Bureau). Washington, DC: Population Bulletin.
Bok, D. (2005, December 18). Are colleges failing? – The Boston Globe. Boston.com – Boston, MA News, Breaking News, Sports, Video. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.boston.com/news/education...lleges_failing ?
Bok, D. C. (2006). Our underachieving colleges: A candid look at how much students learn and why they should be learning more. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Brooks, J. M. (1997). Beyond teaching and learning paradigms: Trekking into the Virtual University. Teaching Sociology, 27, 1-14.
Carroll, J. L. (2007). Sexuality now: Embracing diversity (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning.
Casper, L. M., & Bianchi, S. M. (2002). Continuity and change in the American family. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Collins, L. (1999). Emotional adultery: Cybersex and commitment. Social Theory and Practice, 25(2), 243-270.
Davidson, J. K. (1991). Marriage and family. Dubuque, IA: William C. Brown.
Frieden, T. (2011, January 14). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for the Centers for Disease Control (United States, Center for Disease Control). Retrieved February 12, 2011, from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwr...m?s_su6001al_w
Gwinnell, E. (1998). Online seductions: Falling in love with strangers on the Internet. New York: Johnson Publishing.
Havighurst, R. J. (1972). Developmental tasks and education, (3rd ed.). New York: D. McKay.
Heron, M. P., & Smith, B. L. (2007). Products – Health E Stats – Homepage. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pub...ingdeath03.htm
HRC | Marriage & relationship recognition. (n.d.). HRC | Human Rights Campaign | Home. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.hrc.org/issues/marriage.asp
Kerckhoff, A., & Davis, K. (1962). Value consensus and need complementarity in mate selection. American Sociological Review, 27(June), 295-303.
Lee, J. A. (1973). The colors of love: An exploration of the ways of loving. Don Mills, Ont.: New Press.
Of, T. (2006, September 21). Families and living arrangements, formerly households and families. Census Bureau Home Page. Retrieved May 07, 2011, from http://www.census.gov/population/www...mo/hh-fam.html
Reiss, I. (1960). Toward a sociology of the heterosexual love relationship. Marriage and Family Living, 22(May), 139-145.
Ridley, C. A., Peterman, D. J., & Avery, A. W. (1978). Cohabitation: Does it make for a better marriage? The Family Coordinator, April, 126-136.
Seccombe, K., & Warner, R. L. (2004). Marriages and families: Relationships in social context. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Sternberg, R. (1988). A triangular theory of love. New York: Basic.
Tannen, D. (1990). You just don’t understand: Women and men in conversation. New York: Morrow.
United States, U. S. Department of Education. (2006). A test of leadership: Charting the future of U. S. higher education. Washington, D. C.
Volko, N. D. (2004, September 19). Exploring the Whys of Adolescent Drug Use. (United States, National Institute on Drug Abuse). Retrieved January 23, 2007, from http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_notes/...epVol19N3.html


2.1: Types of Solutions and Solubility
- To understand how enthalpy and entropy changes affect solution formation.
- To use the magnitude of the changes in both enthalpy and entropy to predict whether a given solute–solvent combination will spontaneously form a solution.
In all solutions, whether gaseous, liquid, or solid, the substance present in the greatest amount is the solvent, and the substance or substances present in lesser amounts are the solute(s). The solute does not have to be in the same physical state as the solvent, but the physical state of the solvent usually determines the state of the solution. As long as the solute and solvent combine to give a homogeneous solution, the solute is said to be soluble in the solvent. Table \(\PageIndex{1}\) lists some common examples of gaseous, liquid, and solid solutions and identifies the physical states of the solute and solvent in each.
| Solution | Solute | Solvent | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| gas | gas | gas | air, natural gas |
| liquid | gas | liquid | seltzer water (\(CO_2\) gas in water) |
| liquid | liquid | liquid | alcoholic beverage (ethanol in water), gasoline |
| liquid | solid | liquid | tea, salt water |
| solid | gas | solid | \(H_2\) in Pd (used for \(H_2\) storage) |
| solid | solid | liquid | mercury in silver or gold (amalgam often used in dentistry) |
| solid | solid | solid | alloys and other "solid solutions" |
Forming a Solution
The formation of a solution from a solute and a solvent is a physical process, not a chemical one. That is, both solute and solvent can be recovered in chemically unchanged forms using appropriate separation methods. For example, solid zinc nitrate dissolves in water to form an aqueous solution of zinc nitrate:
\[\ce{Zn(NO3)2(s) + H2O(l) \rightarrow Zn^{2+}(aq) + 2NO^{-}3(aq)} \label{13.1.1} \]
Because \(Zn(NO_3)_2\) can be recovered easily by evaporating the water, this is a physical process. In contrast, metallic zinc appears to dissolve in aqueous hydrochloric acid. In fact, the two substances undergo a chemical reaction to form an aqueous solution of zinc chloride with evolution of hydrogen gas:
\[\ce{ Zn(s) + 2H^{+}(aq) + 2Cl^{-}(aq) \rightarrow Zn^{2+}(aq) + 2Cl^{-}(aq) + H2(g)} \label{13.1.2} \]
When the solution evaporates, we do not recover metallic zinc, so we cannot say that metallic zinc is soluble in aqueous hydrochloric acid because it is chemically transformed when it dissolves. The dissolution of a solute in a solvent to form a solution does not involve a chemical transformation (that it is a physical change ).
Dissolution of a solute in a solvent to form a solution does not involve a chemical transformation.
Substances that form a single homogeneous phase in all proportions are said to be completely miscible in one another. Ethanol and water are miscible, just as mixtures of gases are miscible. If two substances are essentially insoluble in each other, such as oil and water, they are immiscible . Examples of gaseous solutions that we have already discussed include Earth’s atmosphere.
The Role of Enthalpy in Solution Formation
Energy is required to overcome the intermolecular interactions in a solute, which can be supplied only by the new interactions that occur in the solution, when each solute particle is surrounded by particles of the solvent in a process called solvation (or hydration when the solvent is water). Thus all of the solute–solute interactions and many of the solvent–solvent interactions must be disrupted for a solution to form. In this section, we describe the role of enthalpy in this process.
Because enthalpy is a state function , we can use a thermochemical cycle to analyze the energetics of solution formation. The process occurs in three discrete steps, indicated by \(ΔH_1\), \(ΔH_2\), and \(ΔH_3\) in Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\). The overall enthalpy change in the formation of the solution (\( \Delta H_{soln}\)) is the sum of the enthalpy changes in the three steps:
\[ \Delta H_{soln} = \Delta H_1 + \Delta H_2 + \Delta H_3 \label{13.1.3} \]
When a solvent is added to a solution, steps 1 and 2 are both endothermic because energy is required to overcome the intermolecular interactions in the solvent (\(\Delta H_1\)) and the solute (\(\Delta H_2\)). Because \(ΔH\) is positive for both steps 1 and 2, the solute–solvent interactions (\(\Delta H_3\)) must be stronger than the solute–solute and solvent–solvent interactions they replace in order for the dissolution process to be exothermic (\(\Delta H_{soln} < 0\)). When the solute is an ionic solid, \(ΔH_2\) corresponds to the lattice energy that must be overcome to form a solution. The higher the charge of the ions in an ionic solid, the higher the lattice energy. Consequently, solids that have very high lattice energies, such as \(MgO\) (−3791 kJ/mol), are generally insoluble in all solvents.
A positive value for \(ΔH_{soln}\) does not mean that a solution will not form. Whether a given process, including formation of a solution, occurs spontaneously depends on whether the total energy of the system is lowered as a result. Enthalpy is only one of the contributing factors. A high \(ΔH_{soln}\) is usually an indication that the substance is not very soluble. Instant cold packs used to treat athletic injuries, for example, take advantage of the large positive \(ΔH_{soln}\) of ammonium nitrate during dissolution (+25.7 kJ/mol), which produces temperatures less than 0°C (Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\)).
Entropy and Solution Formation
The enthalpy change that accompanies a process is important because processes that release substantial amounts of energy tend to occur spontaneously. A second property of any system, its entropy, is also important in helping us determine whether a given process occurs spontaneously. We will discuss entropy in more detail elsewhere, but for now we can state that entropy (\(S\)) is a thermodynamic property of all substances that is proportional to their degree of disorder. A perfect crystal at 0 K, whose atoms are regularly arranged in a perfect lattice and are motionless, has an entropy of zero. In contrast, gases have large positive entropies because their molecules are highly disordered and in constant motion at high speeds.
The formation of a solution disperses molecules, atoms, or ions of one kind throughout a second substance, which generally increases the disorder and results in an increase in the entropy of the system. Thus entropic factors almost always favor formation of a solution. In contrast, a change in enthalpy may or may not favor solution formation. The London dispersion forces that hold cyclohexane and n-hexane together in pure liquids, for example, are similar in nature and strength. Consequently, \(ΔH_{soln}\) should be approximately zero, as is observed experimentally. Mixing equal amounts of the two liquids, however, produces a solution in which the n-hexane and cyclohexane molecules are uniformly distributed over approximately twice the initial volume. In this case, the driving force for solution formation is not a negative \(ΔH_{soln}\) but rather the increase in entropy due to the increased disorder in the mixture. All spontaneous processes with \(ΔH \ge 0\) are characterized by an increase in entropy. In other cases, such as mixing oil with water, salt with gasoline, or sugar with hexane, the enthalpy of solution is large and positive, and the increase in entropy resulting from solution formation is not enough to overcome it. Thus in these cases a solution does not form.
All spontaneous processes with ΔH ≥ 0 are characterized by an increase in entropy.
Table \(\PageIndex{2}\) summarizes how enthalpic factors affect solution formation for four general cases. The column on the far right uses the relative magnitudes of the enthalpic contributions to predict whether a solution will form from each of the four. Keep in mind that in each case entropy favors solution formation. In two of the cases the enthalpy of solution is expected to be relatively small and can be either positive or negative. Thus the entropic contribution dominates, and we expect a solution to form readily. In the other two cases the enthalpy of solution is expected to be large and positive. The entropic contribution, though favorable, is usually too small to overcome the unfavorable enthalpy term. Hence we expect that a solution will not form readily.
| \(ΔH_1\) (separation of solvent molecules) | \(ΔH_2\) (separation of solute particles) | \(ΔH_3\) (solute–solvent interactions) | \(ΔH_{soln}\) (\(ΔH_1\) + \(ΔH_2\) +\(ΔH_3\)) | Result of Mixing Solute and Solvent† |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| large; positive | large; positive | large; negative | small; positive or negative | solution will usually form |
| small; positive | large; positive | small; negative | large; positive | solution will not form |
| large; positive | small; positive | small; negative | large; positive | solution will not form |
| small; positive | small; positive | small; negative | small; positive or negative | solution will usually form |
|
*\(ΔH_1\), \(ΔH_2\), and \(ΔH_3\) refer to the processes indicated in the thermochemical cycle shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\).
† In all four cases, entropy increases. |
In contrast to liquid solutions, the intermolecular interactions in gases are weak (they are considered to be nonexistent in ideal gases). Hence mixing gases is usually a thermally neutral process (\(ΔH_{soln} \approx 0\)), and the entropic factor due to the increase in disorder is dominant (Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\)). Consequently, all gases dissolve readily in one another in all proportions to form solutions.
Considering \(\ce{LiCl}\), benzoic acid (\(\ce{C6H5CO2H}\)), and naphthalene, which will be most soluble and which will be least soluble in water?
Given : three compounds
Asked for: relative solubilities in water
Strategy : Assess the relative magnitude of the enthalpy change for each step in the process shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\). Then use Table \(\PageIndex{2}\) to predict the solubility of each compound in water and arrange them in order of decreasing solubility.
Solution:
The first substance, \(\ce{LiCl}\), is an ionic compound, so a great deal of energy is required to separate its anions and cations and overcome the lattice energy (ΔH 2 is far greater than zero in Equation \(\ref{13.1.1}\)). Because water is a polar substance, the interactions between both Li + and Cl − ions and water should be favorable and strong. Thus we expect \(ΔH_3\) to be far less than zero, making LiCl soluble in water. In contrast, naphthalene is a nonpolar compound, with only London dispersion forces holding the molecules together in the solid state. We therefore expect \(ΔH_2\) to be small and positive. We also expect the interaction between polar water molecules and nonpolar naphthalene molecules to be weak \(ΔH_3 \approx 0\). Hence we do not expect naphthalene to be very soluble in water, if at all. Benzoic acid has a polar carboxylic acid group and a nonpolar aromatic ring. We therefore expect that the energy required to separate solute molecules (ΔH 2 ) will be greater than for naphthalene and less than for LiCl. The strength of the interaction of benzoic acid with water should also be intermediate between those of LiCl and naphthalene. Hence benzoic acid is expected to be more soluble in water than naphthalene but less soluble than \(\ce{LiCl}\). We thus predict \(\ce{LiCl}\) to be the most soluble in water and naphthalene to be the least soluble.
Considering ammonium chloride, cyclohexane, and ethylene glycol (\(HOCH_2CH_2OH\)), which will be most soluble and which will be least soluble in benzene?
- Answer
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The most soluble is cyclohexane; the least soluble is ammonium chloride.
Summary
Solutions are homogeneous mixtures of two or more substances whose components are uniformly distributed on a microscopic scale. The component present in the greatest amount is the solvent, and the components present in lesser amounts are the solute(s). The formation of a solution from a solute and a solvent is a physical process, not a chemical one. Substances that are miscible, such as gases, form a single phase in all proportions when mixed. Substances that form separate phases are immiscible. Solvation is the process in which solute particles are surrounded by solvent molecules. When the solvent is water, the process is called hydration. The overall enthalpy change that accompanies the formation of a solution, \(ΔH_{soln}\), is the sum of the enthalpy change for breaking the intermolecular interactions in both the solvent and the solute and the enthalpy change for the formation of new solute–solvent interactions. Exothermic (\(ΔH_{soln} < 0\)) processes favor solution formation. In addition, the change in entropy, the degree of disorder of the system, must be considered when predicting whether a solution will form. An increase in entropy (a decrease in order) favors dissolution.